Values, Technology and Innovation

The Department of Values, Technology & Innovation (VTI) focuses on the value dimension of comprehensive engineering, the overarching research theme of the Faculty Technology, Policy and Management. The central research theme of the department is responsible innovation.

The value dimension is important for the further development, social acceptance and moral acceptability of technological innovations. Lack of public support for an innovation often means that it is not introduced into society, even though it might make a positive contribution to society in some way. At other occasions, the innovation is pushed through despite lack of public support, which sometimes means that public concerns are ignored. The responsible innovation approach provides for an alternative paradigm: the choice should not be between foregoing a potentially helpful innovation or pushing it through despite justified concerns. Rather, the responsible innovation approach pays attention to important values, in the design as well as in the implementation of technological innovations, and in the institutions that govern them.